1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a switch, more particularly to a switch that has a rolling conductive ball and that is suitable for mounting on a circuit board for providing triggering signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, a jerk-initiated switch 1, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,045,724, is shown to comprise a housing 6, four electric terminal rods 8, and an electrically conductive ball 9.
The housing defines a chamber 65 that has upper and lower tapered portions 652, 651.
Each of the electric terminal rods 8 includes top and bottom end portions 83, 82 received in a respective mounting hole 713 and a respective through hole 613 formed in the housing 6, and a flange 71 between the top and bottom end portions 83, 82.
The electrically conductive ball 9 is disposed in the housing, and is rollable within the chamber 65.
When the switch 1 is in an OFF state, the conductive ball 9 rests in the lower tapered portion 651, and is not in contact with any of the terminal rods 8. When the switch 1 is tilted at 45 degrees, as shown in FIG. 4, the conductive ball 9 rolls to contact the flanges 71 of any two adjacent ones of the terminal rods 8, thereby switching the switch 1 to an ON state.
While the switch 1 can be set to an ON or OFF state by changing the position of the same, the switch 1 cannot be placed in the ON state constantly by rotating the switch 1 continuously about an axis parallel to the terminal rods 8 because the conductive ball 9 tends to move into the upper or lower tapered portion 652, 651 of the chamber 65 from the flanges 71 during rotation.
Moreover, electronic products, such as digital cameras, PDAs, cellular phones, electronic toys, etc., are increasingly being provided with a large number of functions. Consequences of this include the need for circuit boards to be able to provide triggering signals, as well as a high demand for quality.